A/C stopped working week after having maintenance call
 

Routine maintenance by One Hour Heating and Air, all was well except he had to replace capacitor (?).

The following week, our A/C just stopped working, fan was not kicking on. I was really puzzled due to the previous week’s service call. Of course, it was getting pretty hot in the house, and we had company. Put fans in the room, closed the curtains, turned off the a/c, and called. They were very responsive and got here within about 1 to 1-1/2 hrs, as he was picking up parts for another job.

Man checks everything, and finds an ANOLE had jumped on the edge of the fan blade just as it kicked on and prevented the fan from spinning. Of course, it killed the anole. Simple fix. He gave us a discount on the service call as we were on a maintenance plan with the company.

Just something to check before you call for service, even though it was a one-in-a-million chance of happening.

And I highly recommend using One Hour. Have been using them for around 8 years.

The typical maintenance service that HVAC companies do will not prevent a system failure. The main things to do are to replace the filter and to ensure that the condensate drain is flowing freely by adding hot water every month or so. I do these things myself and never pay for routine maintenance.

As a person once in the A/C field it can be a very shady industry.

I’m not saying this company did anything wrong but it was common practice to arrange things to fail for future business.

I would be very selective in picking an AC outfit.

Are you suggesting the "company" hired a suicidal anole??? :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

No way is this possible.
Those motors in those compressors are too powerful to believe this.

Replace capacitor during routine maintenance?

Anole was killed by a fan blade that wasn't spinning?

I'm a bit confused.

Re-read my post.

My husband watched the guy remove the anole, and the fan started right back up. As I stated, it was a once in a million chance.

We prefer to have a professional service our a/c.

Ahhh, now I understand.

It is highly suspect that an anole prevented the fan blade from turning. How much does an anole weigh? We once had a snake get tangled in the fan blade. A neighbor heard the racket that snake made as it was getting churned to snake soup. We weren't home at the time. By the time we arrived home, the A/C outside unit was humming as usual. Snake guts were all over the unit so that had to be washed out though.

Be careful. There are lots of A-Ñoles out there in the service businesses

. Yes, in a "preventative maintenance" service visit many thorough and experienced techs will proactively measure the capacitance of the capacitor while the unit is already opened to see if it may be leaking and close to failure and replace it proactively. Of course that can be abused but so can anything if your tech is a real a-nole. It can also be done yourself with a proper inexpensive multi-meter if one is into that type of nerdy stuff and wants to save a $150 service call by replacing a $8 part themselves. Been doing that for many years as well as the air handler fan cap (less susceptible to failure)

Totally agree. How large was this anole? Like a one foot lizard from Australia? Did you actually see this anole at the same time the tech came, or after it was diagnosed.

I agree it was a million to one. Perhaps the capacitor that was installed went bad after a week and the anole was a face-saver.

If it was the little guy, go out a get a lottery ticket.

Who is your source for the $8 capacitors?

In January I bought one on amazon for $14. So far so good but five months isn't much of a test.

Although you didn't quote my post I assume you are referring to me since I mentioned $8 caps. Usually eBay. Yea, sometimes Chinese junk, sometimes surplus, sometimes top notch branded ones for cheap if I got lucky. Never paid more than $8-$9 but as long as they work I don't (DIDN'T) care. I always buy (bought) them 2 at a time as well as extra contactors (relays) usually around $10-12 and would replace both if I had to replace one or the other.

Don't have to worry about that for another 9+years or so because we just got a new A/C system to replace our 16yr old system that has 10 year parts & 10yr (extended) labor covered. I'll start checking caps again in 4-5 years. :D